Before I jump into full-on self promo blog mode I want to thank the Incredible Hulk for running (or rather ruining) things in my studio including the chore of posting on this blog while I was away in Chicago for Wizard World a few weeks back. Luckily, his alter ego Dr. Bruce Banner showed up too and put things back in order before I returned. Though it seems the Hulk was pretty popular in the blog comments last entry so I guess for better or worse things were a success, so thank you my big green friend.

I hit the ground running as soon as I got back from the Chicago convention so I didn't get a chance to post a con wrap-up report like I did for San Diego. Doing both shows back to back this year almost killed me, or at least my work schedule anyway, since I like to think I still have some endurance left even though I turned 32 last month. Basically, I had a great time, stayed out way too late every night with friends and had fun sketching for fans and selling artwork. I skipped Chicago last year for the first time in like seven years because I was busy trying to make my deadline for Dark Horse Comics' Star Wars Empire series at the time. This year I forced myself to go, even though I had reservations about how successful the show would be or if I should just cut my losses and get more work done that weekend in my studio. But I'm glad I went since I picked up a few new important contacts and possibly some really cool work doing concept art for a feature film project coming up. I don't want to talk about it just yet for fear of invoking the whammy but if it goes through it'll be a great opportunity to make some good money and get my name and art more exposure in Hollywood cirlces I suppose.

I'm already illustrating for another film project, creating comic book art cut scenes for a horror/comedy/musical called Zombie Prom. It's being produced by horror maestro Wes Craven with special make-up effects by Stan "The Man" Winston (Terminator, T2, Aliens, Predator, Jurassic Park, Pumpkinhead and just about every other cool genre movie that mattered including the Star Wars Holiday Special!).

The film will be playing at the Sundance Film Festival coming up. It's bascially Little Shop of Horrors meets Grease with a little Rocky Horror Picture Show thrown in. The director showed me and a few of the other artists who are working on the project the completed film (with temp comic art) while in San Diego this summer and it was really funny and entertaining. I'm really excited to be a part of this project.

All of the following stuff along with Zombie Prom has kept me on my toes ever since I got back from Wizard World-

I'm currently working on a new sketch card project for Star Trek (the other white meat). That project is due in late September. I'm illustrating a cover for IDW's new Angel series, that piece is due in two weeks and I recently did a fill-in page of pencils for their upcoming Saw: The Rebirth comic which will tie into the Saw II horror movie sequel coming out this Octobter. Komikwerks has me illustrating a children's action-scifi-adventure book called ThunderRiders which should come out later this year.

And I just wrapped my latest Star Wars artwork for Insider #84. There are a number of pieces I'm really happy with in this batch of art featuring Emperor Palpatine, a handful of Jedi (including one of my personal favorite Jedi characters) and a Republic Senator too I was working with Dan Wallace and Pablo Hidalgo on this feature so I think everyone will like it since those guys never disappoint the fans.

I'm still really hoping to draw more Star Wars for Dark Horse Comics soon but I think they are booked up with writer/artist teams for the first half of next year on all of their new series. So I'll just cross my fingers and hope they need another fill-in artist for a story soon. If I had my druthers I'd only ever draw Star Wars comics since that is my true love in life but there are so many talented artists in Dark Horse's stable already - Jan Duursema, Doug Wheatley, Brandon Badeaux, Brian Ching. These storytellers are the real deal and you can't really ask for any better when it comes to spending your hard earned cash on SW comics. I'm really looking forward to all of the new series they're working on which debut in 2006.

In the meantime, I'll just hope for more work from Star Wars Insider since I have some new projects with SW author Abel Pena that we really want to work on if they get approved by editorial. I'll keep everyone posted on my upcoming projects here and on my official website .

I start teaching the Comic Book Illustration course at the Columbus College of Art and Design next week. I've been teaching this class both Fall and Spring semesters (with a few summer sessions thrown in) since 1998 and I'm looking forward to the class starting up again. I like teaching how to draw comic books since it keeps my own skills sharp. Often artists don't get to verbalize what they exactly do when they are creating art, usually we just run on instinct and what feels right or looks good. But explaining the process, the techniques, just vocalizing it allows me to comprehend the process better myself, it makes me more aware of what it is I'm doing so I can do it right more often. Plus it's fun to be creative around other artists, interacting with them and feeding off of that positive energy (even if they do need a little discipline and a kick in the pants to get their work turned in on schedule) since making a living as a freelance illustrator can be somewhat isolated existence. Still, I like being my own boss and getting to draw Star Wars all of the time so I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world

I hope everyone had a great summer and good luck for those of you heading back to school! Be nice to your teachers...